Mission: Strike
by KD Skywalker
Summary: When faced with a doppelganger of his fiancee, Clint Barton must do what it takes to protect those he loves without sacrificing his undercover mission. Sequel to Lady Hawk
1. Chapter 1

**AN and Disclaimer: I don't own Mission Impossible or the Avengers. But Emma Carter is mine! This is the crossover that takes place between 'Lady Hawk' and 'The Things They Carry' – so enjoy and please leave me some loving!**

* * *

**Chapter One:**

Clint Barton would give anything to be in New York City and not the mountains of Afghanistan. It was his little girl's 3rd birthday and he was stuck in the middle of no where, pretending to be an IMF agent and doing recon.

Basically it sucked.

When Fury had assigned him this mission two and a half years ago, he thought that it wasn't going to be this deep uncover. But he was gravely mistaken.

At first, playing the role of William Brandt was simple – mess up in the field, get reassigned a desk job and work up from there. He enjoyed that part since he was home at night and able to spend time with his two leading ladies – Emma Carter and their daughter, Audrey. Then a few months ago, everything went to hell.

The IMF director was killed. The Kremlin was blown up and he was thrust back into the field as part of an IMF team with Ethan Hunt. When Fury found out Clint's new mission, he made it perfectly clear to his agent that he had to stay a part of that team. Clint didn't ask questions, he simply did what he was told. The worst part of the entire ordeal was that he would be away from his family longer.

"Hey Brandt, pay attention!" Ethan said as they monitored a possible terrorist camp along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

"Yeah sorry."

"Got anything good yet?" Benji Dunn's voice crackled over their ear pieces.

"Almost," Ethan responded. "Just waiting for them to emerge from tents."

If on cue, a retrofitted Blackhawk helicopter swooped into the valley and landed. Using the telephoto lens, that he had been taking surveillience photos with, Clint turned the camera on the helicopter and began snapping photos of the two women who were getting off the helicopter and heading into camp. The first woman looked to be of Asian descent while the second one….

Clint just about dropped the camera. There was no way. He snapped a few more pictures then turned to Ethan. "Let's go."

Ethan nodded.

* * *

"So what did you find out?" Jane Carter asked when they returned to their makeshift base that was set up on an old airfield. They were using their Learjet to house all their equipment.

"They had visitors," Ethan said. "Then Brandt almost broke the camera. Hopefully he managed to get some good intel."

Brandt handed the SD card from the camera to Benji to pull up the pictures that were taken. "Go to the last one," he said standing behind the technical field agent. Benji quickly pulled the pictures up on the big screen that was housed in the plane.

"Who is that?" Jane asked.

"Agent 13," Brandt said. "She is an assassin who doesn't make mistakes. No one knows her real name."

"Then who was the other woman with her?" Ethan asked.

"That I don't know."

"I'll run their faces through the databases and see if we can find out anything else on either of them," Benji said.

"That sounds good," Ethan said before turning to look at Brandt. "Do you think that you have any contacts who might know else on either of them?"

"Perhaps. I can try. I've gotta make a few calls first."

Ethan nodded as Brandt went to his bag and pulled out his cellphone. He disembarked the plane and headed outside. Once outside, he slid the back of his phone off and replaced the SIM card in the phone with a different one. This was just a precaution. He didn't want anyone tracing his call – well anyone besides S.H.E.I.L.D.

He quickly dialed the number he knew by heart. His heart was racing as he waited for her to answer. As he waited, the persona of William Brandt was replaced by Clint Barton.

"Hello?" a sleepy voice answered.

"Hey Em," he said relieved.

"Its like midnight Clint and you're not supposed to call for a few more days."

"I know, I know. But I missed your voice."

"Liar. What's wrong?"

Dammit. She knew the differences in his vocal patterns. Was he engaged to a human computer?

He quickly explained everything that had taken place that morning to her. He then waited for her response.

"Baby that mountain air is getting to you. I've been in New York with your mom and Audrey. Fury even knows that."

"But she looked just like you!"

"Then who was the second woman?"

"I dunno. I was hoping your could shed some light on that."

"I'd have to see photos."

"I'll try to get them, but I can't promise anything. But just be weary about your surroundings for a while. I don't want anything to happen to you or Audrey."

"Always am."

"I love you and I hope to be home soon. Give Audrey a hug and kiss for me?"

"I will. Love you too."

As he hung up the phone, the persona of Clint Barton disappeared. It was back to work. Hopefully he could figure out who this doppelgänger was.

* * *

"My contacts didn't know anything," he said as he boarded the airplane again.

"That's ok," Ethan said. "Because I think we figured out where this Agent 13 operates from."

"Where?"

"New York City. Buckle up. We're leaving for the Big Apple."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN and Disclaimer:Typical stuff – I don't own them, I'm just borrowing them for a bit. But Emma is mine! Thanks to all those who read chapter one and liked it so far! Even more thanks to the people who reviewed! So enjoy this chapter as well.**

* * *

**Chapter Two:**

"These are the pictures of this Agent 13 that I've been able to find from various sources." Benji said displaying all the photos just before the team touched down in New York City.

Clint starred at the photos. Now these photos were definitely of Emma – his Emma. Not this imposter in the middle of an Afghan valley. He sighed as he thought about a way to get the IMF team off Emma's tail. Or at least off of her tail until he could warn her.

"Something on your mind, Brandt?" Ethan asked.

"Just wondering how you are planning on cornering Agent 13? I mean this is New York City we're talking about. She could be anywhere. And what about the other woman who was in the valley? What about her?"

"I've managed to hack into the city's camera grid that way if the computers find her via facial recognition, then we can locate her as well. As for the other woman, we're still running facial recognition on her. So far we haven't hit anything," Benji said.

"Doesn't IMF have the most advanced criminal database?" Jane asked.

"Did. Ghost Protocol wiped out most of it. That's why we're relaying on other methods for now – just until everything can get back to normal."

"So here's the plan. We'll set up in a midtown hotel and lay low until we get a hit." Ethan said as he and the rest of the team felt the wheels touch down on the runway somewhere outside of the city.

The team quickly gathered their gear and disembarked the plane. Outside, waiting for them, was a black SUV. The team climbed in and headed into the city. Clint already knew that this was going to be a long mission and he was really hoping that Fury pulled him out when it was over.

* * *

He quietly slipped into the so called living room of the suite that the team was staying in. he needed to get a copy of those photos to Emma. Hopefully the SD card on the camera had not been erased after Benji downloaded the photos a few days ago.

He reached for the camera that was sitting out on the desk and turned it on.

Dammit.

The pictures were gone.

Quickly glancing around the room, Clint noticed that Benji's laptop was sitting on the coffee table, still logged on.

Bingo.

Sitting down on the couch, he slipped a mini USB drive out of his pocket and put it into the laptop. All he needed was two minutes so that the mini USB drive, which was an advanced clone drive, could automatically copy all the files from the laptop. Thank goodness, everyone was dead tired and had jet lag from their flight.

After what seemed like the longest two minutes of his life, the clone drive was done. Clint took the USB drive out of the computer and slipped it back into his pocket. Then he made sure that everything looked exactly how it was before he had moved the laptop. When he was satisfied, he too went off to bed.

Now he just needed to get this USB drive to Emma or S.H.E.I.L.D. – but since it was the middle of the month, that meant that Emma would be at HQ for her monthly check in with Fury. But he'd worry about that in the morning as sleep quickly came to him.

* * *

Clint had volunteered to go pick up breakfast for everyone the next morning. It was the perfect cover to sneak a message and a USB drive out to Emma. He would have called her, but he didn't want to risk anything that big.

But a courier message would be better.

"Hey kid," Clint whispered to a teenager who was trying to get something to eat the next morning at a corner bakery. He had watched the teenager arrive on a bike to the bakery. He figured that the kid was a courier of some kind – given the bag and bike he was riding. It wasn't a typical bike for just riding to corner bakery on.

The teenager walked over to Clint. "How would you like to make $200?" he asked. "I need a message delivered. And I need it done immediately."

"Sure mister, where to?"

Clint jotted down the address to S.H.E.I.L.D. HQ on a napkin and handed it and the money to the teenager, followed by an envelope with the USB drive and a note in it. "Make sure that it gets into the hands of either Emma Carter or Phil Coulson. Got it?"

"Got it."

* * *

"Can you get me any closer?" Emma asked.

"I'll try," the Bridge Tech said as he zoomed the satellite images in on the Afghan Valley that Emma had wanted to see. She knew exactly where Clint was thanks to his call the other night. She had the tech department bounce the signal back to his location when he had called her. His call had struck a nerve with her. Clint typically didn't worried about things in the field.

But obviously seeing this so called doppelgänger of her did worry him. And now she was worried as well.

"Stop!" Emma said pointing to the screen. "Can you zoom in there instead?"

She was pointing to what looked like human figures. The tech did what she asked; yet the picture was still blurry. "That's the best I can do Agent Carter."

"Thanks," she said standing up and turning away from the station. She sighed and wondered what to do next. Best option would be to report it to Fury and have him give her the go ahead to go to Afghanistan and handle the situation herself. Yet she knew that Fury would never let her go in alone. She could take Coulson with her. He was a badass in the field at one time. But she knew that Coulson wouldn't let her go either – he even said so himself a few hours ago when she had told him about the phone call from Clint.

So she was back at square one.

"You might want to see this," Phil Coulson said walking towards her.

He handed her a note, which she read: _Em – Here are the pictures. We're in New York tracking you instead of her. Avoid cameras. –C_

"Pictures?" she asked looking up after she read the note.

Coulson held up a clone drive.

She snatched it from him and sat down at the nearest terminal. She needed to see these pictures. Within minutes, she had located the pictures and was starring at them in disbelief. Clint had been right, this was a doppelganger of her. But how?

"So Barton was right," Coulson said looking over her shoulder. "you do have a twin."

"That's fine and dandy," Emma said turning her focus to the other woman in the photo. She tapped the screen. "But do you realize who this is?"

"No way," Coulson said. "she should be dead. You killed her six years ago."

"Obviously I didn't do a good job. This is not good…"

* * *

"We've got a hit!" Benji said.

"Where?" Ethan asked.

"Brooklyn."

"Let's go then," Jane said.

Clint wearily grabbed his gear and followed the team out of the room. What the hell was Emma doing? Was she trying to get herself killed?


	3. Chapter 3

_**AN and Disclaimer:**__** I don't own them but Emma is mine! You know I would loveeeeeee reviews along with everyone making this a favorite story of theirs and following this story. It just makes me write faster. Plus my birthday was yesterday. Consider a review a later birthday present to me**_

* * *

**Chapter Three:**

"A bookstore?" Jane asked. "An assassin uses a bookstore as cover?"

She and Ethan sat in a small café across the street as they watched the shop, 'Books Galore!', with its few customers going in and out.

"Pretty legit to me. Other workers could run the business while she leaves to take out her targets." Ethan said. "Anything on your end, Brandt?"

Across the street from the café, Brandt stood in an alleyway next to the bookstore. He could see inside and tell how many customers were inside as well as workers. "There are three customers and just our assassin."

As Brandt continued to survey the scene, he had to fight the urge to keep his cover. Being this close to Emma and not being able to hold her was agonizing. He knew that when it came down to it, there was no way that he would let anyone on this IMF team hurt her in any way. He would take a bullet first. Hell, Emma could probably kill all of them with her bare hands, even if she was a bit out of practice.

"Good. Stay put." Ethan said, bringing Brandt out of his thoughts for a moment. "Benji how are those building plans coming?"

Further down the street, set up in what looked to be a plumbing van, was Benji. "Got them and sending them to your phone now."

The three IMF agents received the layout to the old building. "Ok, here's the plan. Once the last customers leave towards closing tonight in a few hours, Jane and I will go through the main entrance like we are normal customers looking for books. We will distract her enough that you can come in from the back and attack her from behind, Brandt. Benji you monitor everything." Ethan said. "We are taking her alive so that we can find out who her partner is."

Everyone agreed with the plan.

'_Almost too perfect'_ Brandt thought. _'I'll just let Emma take me out with them._'

* * *

"Is there anything that I can help you with?"

"Not at the moment," Ethan said as he and Jane began to wander around shop looking at various book titles.

The woman at the front counter nodded before picking back up the tattered copy of _Les Misérables_ by Victor Hugo. Quickly and quietly, Jane and Ethan split up and moved to different areas of the store – every so often they would glimpse up and look to see if the young woman at the counter was still sitting there. The only problem was that they hadn't realized that there would be blind spots in between the bookshelves where they really couldn't see each other.

"Um I think that I need help in finding a book on…" Ethan said looking up.

The young woman was gone.

To his right, he heard a loud crash then a thud against the ground. Making his way towards the noise, he drew his gun from his holster inside his lightweight jacket. As he rounded the corner of the bookshelf, he found himself looking down the barrel of a gun.

Jane's gun.

But it wasn't Jane holding the gun. Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan noticed that Jane lay breathing but hopefully unconscious on the ground.

"Who the hell are you?" the young woman demanded.

He took a step back and pointed his gun at her.

* * *

There was a knock on the door of the plumbing van. Benji ignored it as he monitored the situation going on in the bookstore.

After a few more seconds there was another.

Still he didn't answer.

The next thing Benji realized was that he had been blown off his chair by a mini explosion. Two men in black suits entered the van and grabbed him. They pulled him out into the street.

"Mr. Dunn it's not nice to not answer a knock," Coulson said dusting off his suit.

Benji noticed that men and women in suits surrounded him. "Who are you people?"

"The good guys," he said motioning to the two men in suits. "Take him to HQ."

The two suits nodded as a black SUV rolled up.

* * *

Knowing exactly what the access code was to the backdoor, Clint quietly let himself into Emma's bookshop as he kept with the plan that Ethan had come up with. He hadn't informed Benji of the upgraded security systems that were in place and obviously not included on those plans that Benji had found. He made his way across the storeroom and peered out into the main store floor.

The scene was almost exactly what he had pictured. Emma had taken Jane out somehow, probably with a fiery punch of hers, and was now in a standoff with Ethan. There was no way that he was going to shoot Emma in the leg to help take her down or even approach her from behind.

He knew exactly what she could do and he didn't want to end up in the hospital for a few days with either burns or broken bones. And he couldn't shoot Ethan. He needed something else to distract them both.

Glancing around Emma's storeroom, he noticed that she had a bow of some sort sitting on her desk. He walked over to it and looked it.

It wasn't one of his, but it was similar. The only thing was that the grip was a little different. He wondered if there were any arrows around.

Bingo. He spotted a quiver lying in a corner. He grabbed an arrow from it and inspected the tip in the dim light. It was in odd-looking arrow head – it wasn't pointed, but rather flat and looked like it would send something through the tip when the arrow hit its target. He wasn't sure about this arrow. Holding on to it, he grabbed a few other arrows, hoping for regular arrowhead. He found several odd looking arrowheads, but a few regular ones. Good.

Taking several regulars arrows and the odd looking arrow with him, he made his way back to the doorway. The situation was still the same. Emma had her back to him and he could barely make out enough of Ethan around her to safely miss her and hit him in the arm. Clint had to get Emma's attention somehow.

He noticed that she was once again reading _Les Misérables_. Oh that was right. He promised to take her to that big production of the musical version in London in a few months.

He locked the arrow into place and lined up the shot. Quietly he began to hum the lyrics to "Do You Hear The People Sing?", which Emma hopefully would hear. Humming songs was always one of their signs that I have your back when they had been in tight situations in the field.

"You know what," she said kneeling down. "I surrender."

Ethan kept his attention trained on Emma, which was lucky for Clint. With Emma kneeling down, she had heard him humming.

Clint released the odd looking arrow and hoped that whatever it did, it didn't kill Ethan when it hit him. The arrow hit its mark and sent a jolt of electricity through Ethan as he crumpled to the ground next to Jane. He groaned slightly as his body was turned over and was face to face with the woman who was just in a standoff with him. what the hell had happened?

"Have a nice nap," she said as she pressed several of his joints. Ethan felt his body relax as sleep quickly came to him.

Emma stood up and turned to look at Clint who had moved next to her once Ethan was down for the count. "I see you found your birthday present," she said. "Sorry its now done yet. I'm still tinkering with the arrows."

"I like that one so far," he said motioning to Ethan's motionless body. "Better than my last stun arrow."

She stepped over the two unconscious IMF agents bodies and walked towards her counter. Her cellphone was ringing. "Yeah, I'm ready for a mop up and transportation."

The call ended as quickly as it had begun.

"Coulson?" Clint asked moving towards Emma once again.

"Of course."

"How long until they are here?"

"Five minutes."

Without a word, Clint pulled Emma flush against him and kissed her deeply on the lips. "God, I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Emma said wrapping her arms around him after the kiss.

Clint simply held her in his arms for a brief moment. He hoped that it wouldn't be the last over the next few days. "Umm, where's our daughter?"

"A S.H.E.I.L.D. safe house until you and I are back at HQ. Then she's going to be brought there to see you before you and I have to go to Asia."

"You and I?"

"Yeah. I need help with an assassination that I thought I had done six years ago."

"Who is it?"

"The other woman in the pictures. Her name is Yuriko Oyama."


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN and Disclaimer:**__** I don't own any Marvel/Mission Impossible characters but Emma and Audrey are mine. So enjoy! Nor do I own the song that is in this chapter as well. I'll tell you in next chapter where it came from, but let's see if you can tell me =)**_

_**Reviews please!**_

* * *

**Chapter Four:**

"Where the hell are we?" Jane asked as she paced the room that she, Ethan and Benji were being held in. There were no windows, no solid doors, only three cots along with some food and water that had been brought to them.

"I have no idea," Benji said. "They put a bag over my head. And the two of you were out cold when they brought you in here."

"But that begs the question – where is Brandt?" Ethan asked.

* * *

Emma stood by and watched the precious scene unfold in front of her. As soon as Audrey has seen her father, she had squirmed out of Coulson's arms and tried to run to Clint – but tripped over her feet. Clint was quick to scoop her up into his arms. Audrey wrapped her arms around her father's neck the best that she could and planted a big kiss on his cheek.

"Are you coming home daddy?" she asked.

"For tonight. Then we will see about a few more days."

Audrey smile grew huge. "Will you read to me? Or tell me a story?"

"Of course!"

She kissed his cheek again before laying her head against his shoulder. He shifted his daughter's weight in his arms so that he could pull Emma close to him as well. "I've missed my two girls," he whispered to Emma before kissing her.

"Hopefully you can come home after this," she said after their kiss.

"Me too."

Emma smiled as she leaned over and placed a kiss on Audrey's cheek. "Now you need to go back with Uncle Phil for a little while. Then we will come and get you."

"Ok mommy. But will you sing me the song about the stars tonight?" the little girl asked.

"Of course," Emma said smiling at her. Audrey smiled before giving her father one more kiss. After her kiss, Clint let Audrey stand on her own as Coulson walked towards them.

"I'll take her home," Coulson said. "And watch her until the two of you are done here. But you own me for this Emma – I am not a glorified babysitter."

"I'll make you dinner next week since I know that it's been ages since you've had a home cooked meal."

"Hey what about me!" Clint said in shock. "I've missed your cooking too!"

"I'll make all your favorite meals while you are home," Emma said smiling. "Better?"

"Yes."

Coulson just shook his head in amazement as he took ahold of Audrey's hand and led her down the hallway, leaving her parents behind.

* * *

Fury sat across from the three IMF agents and didn't say a word. Nor had they said a single word to him. This had been going on for about 20 minutes. Finally, Fury had enough of the stalemate. He opened a folder that was under his hand and took out several pictures. He lay them out in front of the three agents. Benji immediately recognized them. "These are the pictures that agent Brandt took the other day. How do you have them?" he asked, picking up a picture and looking at it.

The door to the interrogation room opened and Clint walked in, fully decked out in his S.H.E.I.L.D. attire. He moved to stand behind Fury without saying a word.

"This is Agent Barton or as you three know him, William Brandt. He is one of my best field agents and has been working undercover at the IMF for almost two and a half years."

"Why?" Ethan asked. "Why was he undercover in the first place?"

"He'll explain that later. But right now you have a bigger problem." Fury said, pointing to the mysterious woman in the photo. "This is Yuriko Oyama. She should be dead."

"How do you know that?" Jane asked.

"Because Agent 13 supposedly killed her 6 years ago. But this isn't Agent 13 in the pictures with her." Fury said leaning back and smiling.

"How do you know for sure?" Ethan asked.

The door to the interrogation room opened as a young woman entered the room. She, like Agent Barton had done, moved to stand behind Fury without saying a word. "Meet Emma Carter - the real Agent 13. She works for me."

"How can you be certain that this isn't her?" Jane asked.

"Because the day those pictures were taken I was here in New York with my daughter and her grandmother celebrating her 3rd birthday." Emma snapped back before Fury could stop her. "Plus within minutes of those pictures being taken, Agent Barton called me to see where I was."

"That was your contact?" Benji asked.

Clint nodded.

"So how can we trust any of you? You claim to be the good guys, so then why did you attack us?" Ethan directed towards Emma.

"You were going to kill me. That's why. Now, Agent Hunt, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. It is up to you."

"What's the difference?" Benji asked.

"Either S.H.E.I.L.D. helps you take out Oyama and gives the IMF all the credit or we dump you and your team sans Agent Barton on a random street corner after we go a few more rounds in hand to hand combat." Emma said.

"You can mention S.H.E.I.L.D. to anyone at IMF and they will deny that we exist. We are ghosts more than you are." Fury said.

"I would take the offer of help," Clint said. "Agent 13 is a bit out of practice and is itching for a human punching bag besides myself."

"If you called what she did to us outta practice then I'd hate to see her at her best," Ethan said. "But when do we leave."

"Tomorrow morning." Fury answered. "You are to stay here until then."

* * *

Clint stood in the hallway next to Audrey's bedroom. It was her bedtime and she had requested that Emma sing her a song about the stars. He had no idea that Emma even sang. So he had to hear this. He had pretended that he was going to get something before tucking in Audrey for the night, that way Emma could sing to her first.

He quietly listened as Emma began to hum at first then began to softly sing.

_There, out in the darkness  
A fugitive running  
Fallen from god  
Fallen from grace  
God be my witness  
I never shall yield  
Till we come face to face  
Till we come face to face_

_He knows his way in the dark_  
_Mine is the way of the Lord_  
_And those who follow the path of the righteous_  
_Shall have their reward_  
_And if they fall_  
_As Lucifer fell_  
_The flame_  
_The sword!_

_Stars_  
_In your multitudes_  
_Scarce to be counted_  
_Filling the darkness_  
_With order and light_  
_You are the sentinels_  
_Silent and sure_  
_Keeping watch in the night_  
_Keeping watch in the night…_

He didn't listen to the entire song, but he wondered why Emma sang that song to their daughter?

* * *

Once Audrey had been tucked in for the night, Clint pulled Emma into their bedroom for some much needed alone time with her. He knew that they wouldn't have much time for themselves over the next few days during this mission to Asia. He also knew that they were going to have to explain a lot to the IMF team – well more him than Emma. But still. All he wanted was to simply be with her.

"You know that we do need a little sleep." Emma said as she curled up against Clint's shoulder before pressing a kiss into his collarbone.

"I know, but I'd rather hold you," he said playing with her hair a bit.

"Pitiful, yet I love you."

"I love you too," he said silencing her with a kiss. "but I do have a question."

"Hmm?"

"Why sing that song to Audrey?"

"She wanted a song about why you were always gone. And I told her that you were out there chasing bad guys and that was the only one I could come up with quickly. So I sing it to her before bed almost every night."

In the dim light of their bedroom, Clint smiled before kissing Emma once again. That was the cutest and sweetest thing that he had ever heard. Yet it also pained him not to be able to be there with his daughter as much as he wanted to. He was missing so much of her growing up. But Emma was doing a fantastic job of raising her. And he had been right – the only thing that Emma had ever truly wanted in life was a family of her own. In some sense, that was what he had needed as well. That was why they worked so well together.

He hoped that they both came out of this mission unscathed. More for Audrey's benefit than either of theirs.

The last thing in the world that either of them wanted was to leave their daughter an orphan.


End file.
